George Stephen Morrison

George Stephen Morrison (7 January 1919-17 November 2008) was a Rear Admiral of the US Navy who commanded the carrier division of the US Third Fleet that engaged North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

Biography
George Stephen Morrison was born on 7 January 1919 in Rome, Georgia, United States, and he entered the US Naval Academy in 1938 and graduated in 1941. While serving in the US Navy, he witnessed the 7 December 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor at the start of World War II for the USA, and in 1944 he served with naval aviation in missions in the Pacific War against the Empire of Japan. Morrison served at the joint operations center in Seoul, South Korea during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor, commanded a carrier division of the US Third Fleet (its USS Maddox would be attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964, beginning the Vietnam War), and in 1966 he became a Rear Admiral at the age of 46. In 1967, he was in another incident when Israel attacked USS Liberty, and John S. McCain, Jr. refused to allow him to send planes to defend the ship. In August 1975, he retired from military service, and he died in 2008 at the age of 89 in Coronado, California.